Tag Archives: Books

B: Really had no idea what the topic was about. I just kinda went with it.

So…. yeah. We’ll see how well this turns out.

The prompt this month was:

“What are your thoughts on reading or writing books in non-novel formats? Are there any you’ve particularly enjoyed?”

First of all, what is a non-novel format?

It’s pretty much exactly what the name implies; it’s a book/story/etc written not in the standard format of sentence-paragraph-chapter-book, but in a different style/release format. It could be a serialized book: parts of a book that come out periodically, or it could be something like a diary. It’s really an expansive genre.

I haven’t actually written any non-novel formatted books; I’m rather partial to my paragraphs and chapters. However, I have read more than I thought I had at the beginning of this post.

Serialized Novels:

Serialized novels are novels that are released in parts; for example, a chapter gets released in a magazine/newspaper every other week. Several of today’s “classics” are serialized novels: Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers and Great Expectations, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina were all released periodically.

Of course, in our modern world’s society where (almost) everyone is dependent on the internet, you can’t think that people won’t use the interconnectivity of the internet to inject their writing into the web, where it comes to rest on the screens of people all over the world, waiting to be devoured. Websites and online communities have been built around this fact; FanFiction, WattPad, Figment, to name a few. Writers put up their work, and the online audience reads and comments on it.

One of my personal favourites in this category is the Narnia (duh) FanFic A Rabbit Hearted Girl by Slenderstell. I LOVED it so much. the link is here.

Diary-Style:

For me, I read the Dear Canada series (comparable to the Dear America series for those of you on the south side of the border) where fictional girls write about their experiences in real-life events in Canadian history. For example, I remember reading one about a Chinese girl who immigrated to Canada with her father, and he was working to raise money to bring the rest of their family over. There was another written by a Native girl, who describes the white men coming to her land. Or another about the Halifax explosion in 1917. One that I remember distinctly, though not the title or what it was about, but that there was a stain on the paper because the girl writing it spilled applesauce or jam or something on it. I remember thinking that that was so cool; I’d never seen something like that before.

However, another possible example of this, though maybe slightly more novel-like, is the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, about a middle-schooler who is really kind of clueless. He does go through many things that middle-schoolers today go through; bullying, questions on popularity and girls, etc.

Poetry:

People will also publish a book of poems, where the poem on one side of the page may very well have nothing to do with the one on the next side. for example, poet Shel Silverstein has produced several books of poems, which have become quite popular. Some of his books are: Falling Up, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and A Light in the Attic.

What do you think of non-novel books? Could things like collections of comic books be considered part of this genre?

Hope you enjoyed this!

❤

Psst! These are the other wonderful people participating in the blog chain. Check them out!!!!

Yesterday, I saw something really interesting on another blog: someone thought of book characters for every letter of their blog title. This intrigued me. I decided to try this here, but step it up a little and try for one for every letter of the alphabet. Alright, here goes.

A- Alice from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll

B- Ben Blue from the Virals series by Kathy Reichs

C- Celia from The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

D- Digory from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

E- Edgar from the Atherton series by Patrick Carman

F- Four from the Divergent series by Veronica Roth

G- Grover from the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

H- Hi from the Virals series by Kathy Reichs

I-Isaac from the Fault in Our Stars by John Green

J-Jacob from Thirteen Days to Midnight by Patrick Carman

K- Kadin from Celestia by Steven James

L- Lien-Hua from the Patrick Bowers series by Steven James

M- Matt Cruse from the Airborn Trilogy by Kenneth Oppel

N-Nikki from Halflings by Heather Burch

O- Octavian from the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan

P-Piak from a Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt

Q-Quentin from Paper Towns by John Green

R-Ristridin from Mysteries of the Wild Wood by Tonk Dragt

S- Seaweed from the Submarine Outlaw Series by Phillip Roy

T-Thomas from Maze Runner Trilogy

U- Ursula from the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

V-Viola from The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

W- Wade from Pulse by Patrick Carman

X- Xiana from the BOoks of the Infinite series by R.J. Larson

Y- I can’t think of one for Y..

Z- Zia from the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

If anyone has one for Y I’d love to know. Have a wonderful day everyone.

Since my last two posts have been about writing, I figured I’d do one on my absolute favourite books of all time. There are many I enjoy very much, but here are five of them, not necessarily in order:

(Note: All of these are the first books in a series of at least 3 books, where Narnia is just a whole series)

1. Narnia by C.S. Lewis

My friends make fun of me for it, but I’ve loved reading these ever since I was little, and love them still. C.S. Lewis crafted an imaginary world through which he introduced me and many of his other young readers to the world of fantasy books. Through this masterfully created series, I fell in love with Reepicheep, and cheered as Prince Caspian was crowned king. And of course, my heart resonated with those of Lucy and Susan on that dreadful night at the Stone Table. Narnia opened up a whole world, a whole world filled with other worlds I could reach by just reaching up and opening a book.

2. Prophet by R. J. Larson

This amazing book is about a girl of seventeen who is asked by the Infinite to become his next prophet, and she is sent to a neighbouring kingdom to topple a king. R.J. Larson creates such a beautiful character many of us can relate to; Ela feels inadequate, and seeing as she’s the first female prophet, she receives less respect than would be normally given to a prophet. Ela’s story takes her through many dangerous situations, with her love interest who she gave a black eye the first time she met him, Kien. This book falls under one of the genres I like best, one I like to call Alternate History. Pretty much what happened in our world, but in a different world and with different characters.

3. The Light of Eidon by Karen Hancock

This novel, the first of four in a series, is a tapestry of plot and subplot woven together, to form a coat of colours so vivid. The main plot itself is already an amazing story, but the setting in a fantastical world where good and evil manifest both physically and spiritually brings it to a whole new level. With the romantic subplot, Abramm’s inner fight, the story goes so much further than the topical arena fights. Karen Hancock paints a whole new Alternate History perspective on the story of Joseph.

4. Waterfall by Lisa Bergren

In an instant, two girls are transported from a 21st century archaelogical site to a 14th century countryside. Gabi, who appears during a skirmish between troops of two different castles, representing two different city-states; Siena and Firenze. She is saved from an ugly knight with bad teeth by a gorgeous knight who she pretty much falls for immediately, who, unfortunately, is already taken. Lia comes through later. In this epic, medieval world, two forces clash, with at its head the two she-wolves of Siena. Thanks to this book and its series, my heart lies always with Siena, despite the fact that Firenze (Florence) became dominant later on.

5. The Pawn by Steven James

This is a crime thriller, a book that truly captures its readers and doesn’t let them go until the end of the series, 8 books later. It’s a chess game between the main character, Patrick Bowers, an FBI agent specializing in Environmental Criminology and Geospatial investigating, and his opponent, a criminal known as the Illustionist who is always one step ahead of law enforcement. Steven James has now 8 Patrick Bowers books, each more exciting than the next.

I’ll do another post like this with another 5 books sometime later. Meanwhile, what do you think? Have you read any of these, and if so what did you think of them? I’d love to hear it.